The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) (26 page)

Panic seized me
as I realized there was no talking him out of this, but I focused on keeping my posture as relaxed as I could. Ideas flooded through my brain but I quickly discarded them as unrealistic. I had to come up with something quick or the whole Vegas strip could be dust in minutes.

             
I was so distracted, I tripped on the walk back and Hammond reached a hand out to balance me. This was far from any kind of reunion I had ever imagined. I’d pictured everything from a drug dealing criminal to a drifter, but I never thought my father would want me to become a mass murderer within the first hour of meeting him.

“So?” Tracker asked, looking at both of us.

“I’m in,” I said before Hammond had a chance to answer. To give him his due, his face didn’t betray anything that would make Tracker think that I hadn’t been on board from the get go.

“Good! The more power we can crank into this, the better,” said Tracker.

“I don’t have full control.”

“That’s okay, I’ll join with you and direct your energy.”

So far so good. Now I would just see if I had what it took. Sometimes in life, you have to roll a hard six.

“T
hey are expecting us in ten minutes. Let’s get this up and rolling.”

A few more men
entered the giant cavern and joined us as we stood around in a semicircle, and I knew if I did manage to pull this off, I wouldn’t be leaving here. I wasn’t sure what kind of clout Hammond had, but I doubted it would get me out of the mess I was about to make. That was, if he even bothered to try after this.

Hammond’s warm hand clasped mine, and we walked forward together to stand in front of the massive monoliths.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway. The air in the room became charged and it tasted like I had just sucked on a penny. I felt the energy pulled through me into Hammon
d. As it was, the same familiar sparkling started in the center and started to grow. I didn’t know how long before this wormhole would cause enough instability to set off a disturbance at the other, or how much of a disturbance, but I couldn’t let it get too big or last too long.

Thinking back to what had happened in the portal room that last time, I started summoning up every horrible memory I could think of, every disastrous thing that might yet come if I couldn’t stop this from happening. I had to recreate what happened the last time. I needed to make this thing implode and I knew my emotions
had triggered the last time.

“What are you doing? Your energy feels erratic.”

“I told you I can’t control it.”

“What’s wrong?” Tracker asked from a few feet away.

“Nothing,” said Hammond.

I continued on, thinking the worst possible thoughts imaginable. I felt Hammond’s grip tighten slightly, and I saw his shoulders tense in my
peripheral vision. Then he loosened his grip, trying to disengage me ever so slightly but without anyone noticing. I refused to let go. I had a death grip on his hand now, and I sensed his hesitancy.

The portal was slowly growing larger and larger, and my panic started to grow. I
needed a burst of power, but I felt nothing. I was going to fail. The Lacard portal would blow up and take all those people with it. Lacey, Jonny, Buzz, Dodd, all those faces flooded through my mind. And then, I pictured Cormac’s face.

Without warning, a burst of energy shot through me. Hammond gasped as it shot out of me and through him. He quickly pulled his hand fr
om mine, but it was too late. In a split second, the wormhole filled the entire cavern, hovered at that gigantic size for a second and then imploded.

The aftershock hit us a
ll. I’d barely realized what happened before I was slammed into the opposite side of the cavern and blacked out.

I woke as Cormac lifted a weight from my chest and a vibration hummed beneath me. As awareness hit me, I realized it wasn’t a vibration, it was the mountain shaking.

“What’s happening?”

“You tell me,” he replied but didn’t stop working. I looked down and realized my lower half had been completely buried in debris.

“I think I blew up the portal.”

“That sounds about right. Come on.” He slung my good arm around his shoulder and hoisted me up,
me leaning on him as we walked out.

“Hammond is here somewhere.”

“Hammond?” A flicker of emotion crossed his features and he paused for a split second, then continued on. “We don’t have time. This cavern is about to collapse.”

As we half jogged toward the opening I heard a moan, but I knew if he wasn’t willing to stop for Hammond, he wouldn’t stop for anyone.

Me in one arm, a gun in the other, he didn’t rest until we got to a Range Rover he had parked about one hundred and fifty feet away. I was panting from the pain in an ankle that felt broken and was grateful to collapse onto the soft leather interior.

“Here.” Cormac shoved a luke
-warm water bottle at me but I was thrilled to have it, my mouth tasted like dust.

He threw the truck in gear just as I heard a loud grumbling start and I turned in time to see the top of the mountain sink into the base. The noise would’ve been deafening if my ears weren’t already ringing.

“Is the Strip okay?”

I turned back around to see Cormac on the phone. He nodded and hung up.

“Well?”

“It’s fine.”

“Thank god.” I closed my eyes and passed out, either from the pain or the exertion, maybe both.

“She’s still sleeping? It’s been
, like, twenty hours.” I heard Dodd’s voice from the other room as I slowly opened my eyes.

“However she did what she did, it knocked her out. She fell asleep before we even got back here,” Cormac replied.

“Holy shit, are you sure she did that? That had to be some massive power,” Buzz chimed in.

“It’s pretty boggling, but yeah. Hammond was strong, but I’ve never seen anyone with
that kind of energy. Even when I found her passed out in the mountain, she was still throwing off energy like I’d never felt.”

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed,
pushed the hair from my eyes, and stumbled toward the living room. Every part of me felt sore.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I saw the three of them seated on the couches.

“You tell us?” Dodd said.

“Wish I could.” I plopped down on the empty seat next to Cormac, and looked to him. “What have I missed?”

“My contacts said they were going to make an announcement on the news today about what happened. People are going crazy thinking the mountain just exploded for no reason. Some are saying it was aliens.”

“What are they going to say?”

“Some bunk about a buildup of natural gas or something.”

“Do they know what it really
was?”

“No, but they are investigating it from what I heard.”

“Buzz and I have to go handle a couple of loose ends. Let me know what they say.”

“Don’t forget to take care of Murrey,” Cormac shouted after them as they were walking out of the room.

“You got it,” Dodd hollered back.

“Who’s Murrey?”

“Murrey’s the cab driver who called to let me know Tracker took you to the mountains.”

I let that little nugget digest for a moment, pondering the implications. “How many people do you have on the payroll?”

“Do you want to know just the cabbies? I could probably get that number together fairly quickly, but if you’re asking for a total count, it’s gonna be rough.”

“Is that how you found me at the bus terminal?”

“One of the ways.”

I decided not to pursue that line of questioning
, anymore. I decided I’d be better off in ignorance, rather than looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.

“You said Hammond was there?”

I watched his face for the emotion I knew he must have been feeling, but he didn’t let it show. “Yes. He had some interesting information.”

“What did he have to say?”

“He said he was my father.”

“Did you believe him?”

“I did. He did a weird blood thing, and even though I didn’t understand it, I believed it. He said my mother was a woman named Malora.”

“His blood came to you?”

“Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“It’s not a trick. You’re his daughter. You know, he’s tough. He might be alive.
Do you want me to go back and look for him?”

I knew the offer was only for me. If it hadn’t been, he would’ve already
gone back. I understood betrayal. I didn’t fault him for not going before now. “The place is crawling with people. You couldn’t go back now, anyway. If he’s there, they’ll find him.” I leaned my head against the back of the couch as I looked at Cormac. “He was willing to help Tracker even though it could kill thousands of people. That doesn’t sit well with me at all, but I would’ve liked an opportunity to have talked to him.”

“
I’m telling you, he’s tough. We’ve got a couple of days before the heat will cool down on the area, but if you want, I will go back.”

I nodded, not saying anything. I didn’t know what to say.

“We are pretty sure Tracker is dead.”

“
How sure?”

“Someone else has already taken up his position.”

“They work quickly, huh?”

“Yes. Tried the portal this morning. It’s already running smooth
ly again.”

There was a heavy pause. We both knew what that meant. With the portal operating and Tracker dead, I didn’t need to stay
, anymore. They didn’t need me, anymore; that eliminated all threats. A heavy weight settled on my chest.

“So what are your plans? Med school?”

“You know, for so long I thought that was what I wanted to do. But now, I’m not sure. I think my need to understand what I am might have been the largest draw. Now that I know, I might take a different path, I think.”

“Whatever you decide to do, I can let you know when I find something out about your mother. Just let me know where you plan to be.”

I smiled as I looked at him. “Do I really need to tell you?”

“No, but I didn’t want to freak you out too badly.”

We fell into a dead silence, just the background noise from the TV filling the void. I looked around the room, taking in all the details that had been there for weeks but now had some strange importance to me. From the bottles that lined the bar against the wall, to the man who sat next to me. After a minute too long, I pulled my eyes from him, turning toward the distracting geologist who was speaking on the TV.

“Who is that guy?”

“Who?”

“The grey haired guy to the left of the geologist?”

“It’s Senator Core. You don’t recognize your own senator? Jo, you really should look at the news once in a while.”

“That’s the man I killed!”

“Not possible.”

I turned to stare him straight in the face and grabbed the front of his shirt to emphasize how serious I was.

“That’s him. Unless he has a twin, Senator Core is involved in all this.”

“That
, I didn’t see coming.”

We both stared at the TV now as the Senator took the podium and I heard that familiar voice speaking.

“This isn’t good, Jo.”

“No, it’s not. And the guy knows exactly what I look like
, too. I’ve got to show you something. I’ll be right back.” I ran into my room and grabbed the page I’d gotten from the priest.

“
Where did this come from?” Cormac asked as I handed it to him.

“
It was left with me when I was abandoned.” I watched Cormac scan the page quickly and then turn it over and inspect the sheet itself, before scanning the words again.

“
This is about you, the golden child. I’m the giver of eternal lilies.”

“
I know.”

“Why didn’t you show this to me?”

“I didn’t really believe it until yesterday.”

“This was ripped from a book, and I think I might know what one. It’s only a legend, but then again
, almost all of our history is. If I’m right, this comes from the Book of Omens.”

“That does not sound good.”

“It dates back to Richard. He was one of the original ten alchemists. When they were changed, Richard claimed to have visions. It was said he wrote everything down in this book.”

“
‘Tis not the end but the start of it all.’ I repeated from memory. That doesn’t sound good.”

“
I don’t think you should leave. At least not until we get a handle on how deeply this runs.”

“Agreed.” And strangely, I felt better.